Review of Fitzcarraldo (1982) by Brian E — 31 Jan 2010

It is completely modern to exaggerate the term "epic"; Listen, you may not know the meaning of the word "epic" until you watch a determined man of dreams with a team of Amazon natives literally haul a steamboat over a mountain.

Werner Herzog's 1982 classic, 'Fitzcarraldo' is the true epitome of "epic" - NOT your flawless, glorified Hollywood historic figures a la 'Gladiator' or 'Braveheart', but certainly as far as your more triumphant Disney films.

Fitzcarraldo is a man of dreams, who gives his all to make his biggest dream happen: to create a steamboat opera house in the middle of the indigenous jungles near Peru. Played by the true embodiment of thespian insanity, Klaus Kinski, Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald ("Fitzcarraldo" for a somewhat shorter moniker) begins as an outcast, shut off by the upper bourgeoisie-like, socially-starved individuals who absorb the benefits and culture of the opera house and the classic sounds of Enrico Caruso, but keep it exclusive to their high society and laugh at Fitz for attempting to expand it to those distant from it.

He begins by taking out a large loan to buy a worn, fixer-upper steamboat; then hires a crew of Hispanic workers, cooks, and sailors; then takes strong precautious sailing advice, when his nautical adviser warns him that anyone who takes a certain, more fluid route around the destined island is sure to be killed by native attack, which ensues the biggest obstacle of all: lifting the ship over the mountain.

He plays the sounds of Caruso through his record player for the jungle to hear, which moves the natives deeply, inspiring them to help strictly out of passion. Fitzcarraldo is a much more tame characterization compared to Kinski's other works, though the insanity and drive is still at its most hypnotically bare.

It's an easy assumption that through Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski's decade of partnered works, they certainly perform through each other like no other director-actor relationship. Herzog proves to be the hidden protagonist of his film, as every step of the way, he partakes in the actual real-life hauling of the steamboat.

It's a real-life accomplishment, and a gorgeous one, at that. A simple tale, with barriers of gigantic proportions, 'Fitzcarraldo' is a perfect study of bare-bones, natural setting (in a continuing Herzog trend) that lifts daring, guerilla film-making to a distinct top-tier art form, as well as a ground-breaker that tides against the waves of conventional classics.